AFI Fest A to Z: Hey Man, Yeah

CRITIC'S PICK  RUBBER "All great films contain an important element of No Reason," declares a key character in Rubber's pre-credits prologue. "The movie you're about to see is an homage to No Reason." A bizarro genre-bender in which a tire with inexplicable motor skills and psychokinetic powers goes on a killing spree, Rubber twins its synth-suspense-scored violence with a parallel plotline about the increasingly desperate fates of a band of tourists who have been carted out to the desert to watch the tire's exploits through binoculars. Director Quentin Dupieux indulges in genre conventions while skewering them; the voyeurs get what's coming to them, but the final images confirm that Hollywood is his real target. A masterpiece of absurdist horror aesthetically inspired in equal parts by When Inanimate Objects Attack schlock and the epic desert impressionism of Zabriskie Point, Rubber is the must-see film of the festival. (KL) (Nov. 5, 9 p.m., Chinese)

LE QUATTRO VOLTE Michelangelo Frammartino's droll, picturesque look at an Italian country hamlet is a bit like an old-fashioned children's book: drinking in a shepherd's routine, a goat's shenanigans, the hubbub of a harvest celebration. Bearing the burden of praise from multiple international film festivals, the film draws on the approved wait-and-see style, but Frammartino doesn't just want to ennoble man and beast — he has a bit of a sense of humor, and he's clearly got Jacques Tati and Otar Iosselliani on his mind. So, yes, the old shepherd will make his labored way down a shady forest path, representing the passing of one age of man, but there's also a series of orchestrated comic set pieces at a village crossroads — presided over by a hectoring dog, host to a ramshackle Catholic procession in clattering Roman dress, and ill-advised parking spot for a truck wheel-anchored by a single cobblestone. (NR) (Nov. 9, 4:30 p.m.)

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The Myth of the American Sleepover

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RABBIT HOLE An adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire's play about a couple torn apart by the grieving process following the accidental death of their only child, Rabbit Hole is precisely the sort of prestige item Hollywood used to regularly turn out; the fact that it's a smaller-scaled indie is one indication of how times have changed. Doing a 180 from his sexually cutting-edge past (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shortbus), director John Cameron Mitchell has a real feel for actors, and he brings the very best out of the preternaturally chilly Nicole Kidman as a woman so discombobulated by tragedy that she seeks to form a friendship with the young man who inadvertently killed her son. Aaron Eckhart comes through solidly as well in a seemingly simple drama that leaves a subtle emotional aftertaste. (DE) (Nov. 7, 8 p.m., Egyptian)

A SCREAMING MAN If you believe that a father in Chad would sell his son to the army in order to regain his position as a pool attendant — not because he's been fired, but because he's been "demoted" to a position guarding the hotel gate, with the son replacing him poolside — then you might agree with this year's Cannes jury, which awarded A Screaming Man its equivalent of third prize. Director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun has a keen eye for wide-screen composition, but he leans ridiculously hard on the weathered visage of his impassive lead actor, slowly tracking into his sorrowful face whenever he thinks the film needs a shot of emotion. Worthiness only gets you so far, and it's hard not to imagine how much more urgent and purposeful this scenario might have been in the hands of, say, the Dardennes. (MD) (Nov. 6, 7 p.m., Chinese)

SHIT YEAR Cam Archer's elliptical, surreal story of a fucked-up year in the life of an aging actress embodies the stereotypes that come to mind for folks who loathe art-house fare. Shot in black-and-white (which beautifully compliments Ellen Barkin in the lead role), the film is filled with close-ups on faces and body parts, cuts to therapist sessions in sci-fi-like environs, meandering voice-overs and leaps back and forth across the time line. Barkin is great as the searching, bitchy lead, and small parts afford underused actresses like Theresa Randle and Melora Walters some camera time, but this tale and its characters might have been better served by more conventional storytelling. (EH) (Nov. 6, 6:45 p.m. Chinese)

CRITIC'S PICK  TWO GATES OF SLEEP Writer-director Alistair Banks Griffin's meditative, gorgeously poetic film has already been both heralded as a nod to Terrence Malick and labeled an exercise in tedium. The story of two poor rural brothers who must overcome all manner of obstacles to honor their late mother's wishes for her burial, the film is absolutely measured, filled with long takes while being largely void of dialogue. It's also filled with visuals that telegraph volumes about the lives of its characters — the weathered, ramshackle house they live in; the burned-out ruins of their old home, to which their mother is repeatedly drawn before dying; the close-ups of a deer being skinned and gutted. The film gives a condescension-free, clear-eyed look at poverty and struggle that befits characters who stoically face life's harshness and bleakness head-on, with their own brand of grace. (EH) (Nov. 6, 1 p.m., Chinese)